Another recent update to the Bungie.net web site explains the company's plans to help support the vast online community surrounding many of their games. They've hired new web designers and maintainers, and personnel from other areas of the company are now joining in to help out with the cause. Here's an excerpt from the site with more:

Over the years a very strong community has developed around Bungie with very little help from us. This was the way it had to be, as we all had marketing and PR and customer service jobs, and really very little time to devote to supporting the community. Yet we marveled at what developed despite us, one of the strongest, most intelligent, tightly knit online communities ever, certainly for a game company.

We believe that what we've seen is just the very tip of something huge, a community with enormous potential. We're certainly interested in promoting Bungie, but our interests go deeper. Over the years we've developed friends in the community that we value very dearly. At the same time we've seen the incredible products of groups within our community working together to create extraordinary community-driving web sites, maps and scenarios, even whole new games.

Our greatest interest lies in helping this community become something bigger; a community that's welcoming and accessible to new members, yet complex enough to maintain the interest of existing members. This all sounds pretty vague, but I'm very serious about it. This was the impetus behind this web portal site, and this was the primary reason for forming the online team. Thus the members of Bungie's online team aren't PR reps, we're simply members of the community that have a unique view and the unprecedented ability to take the community to the next step in its evolution.

This seems like a very noble and interesting cause, and we'll keep you posted as they start producing this web portal site. As always, check out the Bungie.net site for much more fan-related information.
Bungie.net Web Site